Saturday, August 22, 2009

Well that's one way of solving the problem...

I continue to work fast and furiously on finishing two pairs of socks that I have little enthusiasm for in order to move them out of the WIP column and thus 'free up' space for me to cast on for several projects that I am gaga over. I have been thinking about these projects for about a month yet some sort of (misplaced?) guilty conscience says that for every project I start, I must finish at least two from my Ravelry project page. Why does it have such control over me? It's a place that sends me into a fugue state every time I look at it. Sometimes I just stare and ask myself "Why did I cast on for that?", which quickly becomes "Why do you care? Just cast on for whatever you like and let the chips fall where they may". This gives ways to adolescent musings about free will and "I'll do what I want", which ultimately turns into "Why am I talking to myself?"...

For the past month I have been engaged in a game of musical chairs with the Vine Lace Top-Down Cardigan, the Minimalist cardigan and the Heather Hoodie vest and the possible yarns I might use. My daily commute (which has started again this week: I know other academics in the house might also be feeling the burn) has been spent trying to play a version of Match Game '73 with them "I will do the Minimalist cardigan in ______________". (Tip o' the hat to anyone who remembers that Mark Goodson/Bill Todman production--my grandma loved that show!).

I thought I had the puzzle solved until the publications you see below arrived in the mail:

My stealth fingers and expert clicking ability--my husband calls it late night clickety, I call it just me being me--were able to procure the brand new Véronik Avery St-Denis magazine as well as JF's Made in Brooklyn. The new Twist Collective is also not helping as there are a few patterns in there that are calling my name (Lorelei, I'm looking at you). But to be able to start any of these, radical provisions are in order.

The WIP that has presented me with the single most genuine irritation has got to be the Katharine Hepburn Cardigan. I love how it looks, but cables and lace is so not where I ever need to be in terms of maintaining sanity while knitting. I began this project over two years ago and have put it down and picked it up on so many occasions that I scarcely have any idea where I am or what I'm doing. It doesn't help that for about a 7 month period I had accidentally (on purpose?) left the pattern in Wisconsin. And since the Green Mountain Shawl (cover of St-Denis--stunning, right?) calls for just about the same amount of sport weight yarn...

Yes I ripped and haven't looked back. Luckily I had a helper who MacGuyvered a great yarn unwinding system with our patio table...

I know this manner of solving the WIP problem is drastic (and possibly lame), not to mentioned self-defeating, but I am so pleased to get that monkey off my back. Stay tuned for more WIP hi jinx...

25 comments:

If you don't want to knit it, Frog It. This is no crime. In fact you can always cast on and knit the very same thing with the very same yarn later on if you're so inclined.

I haven't blogged about this yet but instead of frogging my made up pattern-too small regular sweater in a linen stitch with velvet grape malabrigo, I just cut it up the middle to see if it would fit any better as a cardigan. It doesn't but oh the freedom of cutting really expensive yarn that had been knitted and self-felted beyond frogging.

OMG, I always thought Brett Sommers was so cool in a naughty sort of way. Even her name dared you to fk with her. Match Game. I also remember 74, 75, etc... I loved your rants because that is exactly the type of arguments that go on inside my own warped brain. I must make rules for myself that make me miserable. I mean, that's what knitting is all about, right?

I am so with you, albeit on a much smaller scale. Need to knit two eight-inch squares for a communal project. First square done after two evenings. Second square... over a week later and it is still not done. Don't like the yarn, pattern is beyond fiddly, tension is wonky. But I have too much time into it (and it looks really good, besides) to frog so I slog on. (Kind of like Vietnam.) Right now it is pinned out on the ironing board; I steam blocked it, hoping against hope it would turn out to be eight inches long. Nope, only seven and three-quarters. Damn.

Sometimes you just gotta get the monkey off your back- you did what you had to do! It was time to move on... You'll enjoy that shawl knitting so much more now- it's where you're at, so just get knitting! :-)

Oh, funny! I too am being haunted by UFO's but itching to start more new projects rather than drag out the old ones. I just put the new St. Denis in my Jimmy Beans shopping cart and love the cover scarf too.

So many people have frogged that very sweater. Even if you look at the finished versions in Ravelry, so many complaints about how tortuous it was to finish. I say, extremely good choice!!! Casting on isn't a promise, its a trial. It may work out, it may not. No harm, no foul.

The way I look at it, if it's a WIP for so long that I don't remember exactly where I am, it's time for that project to begin a new life as something else. Life's too short to worry about knitting things you don't like, y'know?

As for me, I am lusting after Jared Flood's book, but I have too many things to knit before the baby comes, so I'm doing my best to resist temptation. We'll see how long I hold out.

In the butchered words of the immortal, Devo, "RIP IT, RIP IT GOOD!" I have wanted to make that cardigan for such a long time but thankfully never casted on... and just recently I let go of go of a UFO that has just be made into my newest FO. And if felt SO good.

Not lame, smart. I was just telling my husband how I have trouble giving up on projects (and books) that I'm not enjoying. I'm more likely to put them to the side and hope they'll just go away on their own.

Strangely they don't seem to do that. And if you rip at least you have some yarn to show for it :)

Ha! you're not the only one who'll savagely riiiiiip in order to fulfill a new hankering. I might even have a few sad stashes of wool that have gone through several taking up/tearing down sessions. Poor wool. What did it ever do to deserve that kind of manhandling?

But I understand, you NEED a Green Mountain Shawl. So do I, incidentally...